Stick & Move
The deals, lessons, and questions to keep your mind active this weekend.
Substance over sizzle. I make no promises about the cadence of this email. I do promise it will be worth your time and mine. -Dave
Internet Personality
You know the character; the awkward, socially maladjusted guy who somehow is the only one who knows how to translate your idea into an app. While he’s been buried in his parent’s basement, society has been out living life, meeting others, and discovering opportunities to propel humanity forward. Yet, somehow, we have had to rely on hermits to slowly produce unfulfilling technological solutions in response to our needs. This dichotomy has profoundly impacted modern society to the extent that friendly, affable, and social creatures are somehow transfixed by a tiny screen just like the nerd who built it. Well, not anymore. The initial release of Replit’s agent brings society closer than ever to empowering the rest of us with the ability to turn the thoughts, desires, and needs of friendly, experienced, and personable people into usable applications. It took ~2+ decades of ‘nerd dominance’ to get society to this point. Just in the nick of time…
Coiled Springs
Branding brings an idea, or concept, to life. You may not agree with Founder Mode, but Paul Graham branded something every entrepreneur already knew well. Recently, I have met with too many people teeming with talent, experience, and know-how, yet stuck in life. They are “A players”, respected if not revered, and anxiously searching for something to fall in love with. We seem to be at the penultimate moment before this generational talent takes its collective leap. These are today’s Coiled Springs and they are what’s next.
Accountability…aisle 2
Love him, or hate him, Mel Kiper Jr.’s rant went viral for, well, just how accurate his assessment is of the Carolina Panthers NFL franchise. They benched their #1 draft pick who happens to play the most important position in football (arguably, all sports), but only after the team opted to fire last year’s coaching staff, introduce a brand new playbook, and then chose to not play their franchise quarterback in the preseason.
Get Busy Livin’, or…
You may have never seen, or heard, it (like me!) but when SiriusXM puts up a cool $125M to acquire a podcast, it’s worthy of attention. The pace of change in media and entertainment is accelerating. That’s inclusive of what we currently call ‘news’. Less concerning is what becomes of the MSM once the Boomers all pass away, but rather where do all those pharma ad dollars go?
I Feel Seen!
The Twitter-verse exploded over Labor Day weekend thanks to Paul Graham’s post about a private talk AirBnB’s co-founder, Brian Chesky, recently gave to the latest YC batch. Chesky’s Founder Mode (as branded by Graham) encapsulated the experience of venture-backed founders since, oh, 2008. It was therapeutic, cathartic, and today’s workforce under the age of 30 should be terrified. The dam has broken. America is getting back to business…
Make Me Smarter, Dave…
If you haven’t read Charles Duhigg’s Supercommunicators, it’s worth speed reading.
Reprice Everything
After the Fed’s decision to lower interest rates by 50 basis points on Wednesday, many pointed to specific industries, companies, and assets that would become more (or less) attractive. While financing rates should adjust accordingly, the prices of certain assets remain perplexingly inflated relative to, well, how much people are willing to spend. Case in point, has anyone researched the price of mediocre cars that 1990s middle class soccer Moms once drove? Yikes.
A Renaissance?
There was a period, oh, 10(ish) years ago when better-for-you products seemingly fell from the sky. Not a week passed without a social media feed feverishly brandishing the newest, healthiest, coolest product that was ripe to displace the old guard. It was damn fun to be alive. Then — poof. ZIRP-era products we fell in love with vanished, or worse, pivoted to boring, ornery brands clearly overwhelmed by upside-down cap tables. Maybe, just maybe, we turned the corner this week when RxBar’s founder, Peter Rahal, jumped back into the fray by introducing his newest protein bar invention…David.